Ancient and International Haggadahs

If you wish to purchase any of these books, click on either the title or the book cover to be directed to Amazon.com. As a warning, I have put up pictures of the book covers to give you somewhat an idea of the style of each book (I know, I know. "Don't judge a book by its cover") so the pages may load slowly, depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Arthur Szyk (pronounced “Shick”) created his magnificent Haggadah in Lodz, on the eve of the Nazi occupation of his native Poland. There is no Haggadah like it, before or since, filled with sumptuous paintings of Jewish heroes and stunning calligraphy.

This edition, the first since 1940 to be reproduced from Szyk’s original art, boasts a newly commissioned and extremely practical English text by Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin, ideal for use at any family Seder, and a special commentary section by Rabbi Sherwin and Irvin Ungar gives insight into both the rituals of the Seder and Szyk’s rich illustrations.

Available in both hardcover and paperback editions, The Szyk Haggadah will transform the Seder, bringing the story of the Exodus from Egypt into a more contemporary light.

In this unprecedented masterwork, The Scholar's Haggadah: Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Oriental Versions, Heinrich Guggenheimer presents the first Haggadah to treat the texts of all Jewish groups on an equal footing and to use their divergences and concurrences as a key to the history of the text and an understanding of its development.

The Seder (the ceremony of the Passover night) is one of the most universally celebrated rituals among Jewish families, for what it commemorates–Jewish freedom from bondage–is the glue that bonds all Jews together, traditional and modern, Ashkenazic and Sephardic alike. In the Book of Exodus the Jewish people are instructed to tell their children of how God brought the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt, and thousands of years later this timeless tradition remains an immutable factor in Jewish homes on Passover night.

While many commentaries have been written on the Haggadah during the last one thousand years–most delineating the spiritual meaning or the ritual details of the Passover ceremonies–few historical investigations have dealt with texts that are not wholly Ashkenazic. Available for the first time to the reader is a Haggadah that includes the customs and ceremonies of not only Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewry, but of Yemenite Jews as well. Additionally, the author provides a commentary that not only offers a key to the roots of the Passover ceremonies and an introduction to the thought and practice of talmudic-rabbinic Judaism, but also presents a history of the development of text and practice of the Seder celebration.

While Yemenite Jewry still follows texts and prescriptions of Maimonides practically in their original form, unchanged for at least 800 years, European Ashkenazic and Sephardic practices have undergone many changes. While the history of Yemenite Jews is riddled with oppression and migration, the Moslem rulers of their country never extended their persecutions to Jewish books. On the other hand, the history of European Jews is dominated by continuous pogroms, beginning with the first crusade, and a permanent war of the Church against Jewish learning that resulted in many public burnings of the Talmud and rabbinic treatises.

Heinrich Guggenheimer has produced an essential work, valuable to the historian, scholar, layman, beginner, and any Jew who wishes to carry on the tradition of a people, who, by observing that tradition, commemorates the very essence of Jewish freedom.

The Haggadah has a unique place among Jewish books: this story of the Exodus is read every year around the table at the Passover Seder, the festive meal that is the one great liturgical ceremony performed in the home. Before the invention of printing, many Haggadot were illuminated by scribes in the European centers of Jewish culture, and The Ashkenazi Haggadah is one of the most beautiful and best preserved. This sumptuous volume includes a magnificently printed facsimile of this remarkable manuscript, exact down to the age-old stains of wine spilled on its pages, and makes a magnificent holiday gift.

Description from Publisher

I found this Haggadah in Paris and was ready to pay three figures for one. It was so inexpensive here that I bought three to give Its very, very heavy paper seems almost like the original parchment. It measures 11X13" and has some 100 full page plates. The colors, painting and calligraphy of this scribe could not be equalled in our century. It is perfectly clear and could be used as a functional haggadah although you will certainly not want to drip wine on this treasure. Keep it away from rowdy kids but show it to everyone else. It's really a marvel. At the end of the book they have appended a modern English and Hebrew version, post Guttenberg style.

Yemenite Jews have contributed their full share to the development of the Jewish religion and culture preserving ancient religious ideas and practices. Many Yemenite Jews are great scholars, individuals who know by heart the Torah, the prayers, and large portions of Jewish literature.The Yemenite community is the most literate of all Jewish communities when it comes to the Bible and the prayers. Famous scholars assert that to understand the laws of the Mishna and Talmud, one has to live with Yemenite Jews.Yemenite Hebrew has been acknowledged by some researchers to contain the most ancient phonetic and grammatical features dating back to the early days of the first Temple. Ancient Hebrew manuscripts were often copied and preserved in Yemen. The Jewish Yemenite prayer book (the "Tiklal") is completely different from the Ashkenazic and Sephardic prayer books. Rambam (Maimonides) always referred to the text in the Yemenite prayer book. Yemenite culture is a way of life affecting every activity at home, school, or in the synagogue. Its tradition is richly represented in art, crafts, music and literature. Yemenite garments, jewelry, embroidery, woven fabrics, carpets, and prayer shawls are famous for their high quality. Yemenite melodies and singers are today the most prominent elements in Jewish and Israeli music and the "Yemenite step" is danced in many Israeli folk dances. Our wedding customs, including the "henna" ceremony, are nowadays accepted and combined with Sephardic and Ashkenazic rituals.

This book, Passover Haggadah The Original Tradition of the Jews of Yemen,is the only Yemenite Haggadah with English translation and has special features:

Twelve of the greatest works of all time are collected in this dazzling tribute to artistic genius. Bosch, Monet, Gauguin, van Gogh, Botticelli, Degas, and other masters are represented.

The Golden Haggadah (written and illustrated in northern Spain around 1320) is one of the outstanding works in The British Library's world-renowned collection of Hebrew manuscripts. Traditionally the most richly decorated of all Jewish prayer books, the Haggadah is used by Jews around the world in the celebration of Passover. This book presents a superbly illustrated account of the Golden Haggadah's creation and history and reproduces all the major illustrations in color. It provides an accessible introduction to Hebrew script art as well as an authoritative commentary on the Golden Haggadah's content and illustrative scheme.

In the winter of 1945-1946, Holocaust survivors in the Munich area created an extraordinary illustrated haggadah in preparation for their first Passover after liberation. Written in both Hebrew and Yiddish, it was first published by the Zionist groups Achida and Nocham, and then reprinted by the United States Army of Occupation. For five decades this work was all but forgotten. Now, The Jewish Publication Society is proud to issue this edition, a facsimile of the original, together with an English translation, previously published in a limited edition by the American Jewish Historical Society. This is a haggadah created by, for, and truly dedicated to, the She'erith Hapletah, the Saved Remnant, "the few who escaped." In 1946, in a public facility in Munich, this haggadah was used in seders celebrated by survivors. Within the pages of A Survivor's Haggadah, the traditional Passover liturgy of the Exodus story is interwoven with the modern story of Jews enslaved and perishing in Hilter's Europe and how they werere liberated. It also reflects the survivors' yearning for the Promised Land, a Zion to be redeemed through the committed work of survivors becoming pioneers.

World-famous photographer Zion Ozeri, a Manhattan resident raised in Israel, is acclaimed by organizations around the world for capturing, in some instances, the last Jewish communities in many countries, from India to Iran. He has traveled the world collecting these priceless cultural portraits of a people united by tradition. To illuminate the Haggadah, the annual retelling of the Jewish people's escape from Egypt, Ozeri's photographs are paired with modern text by noted Jewish scholar and Hagaddah expert, Shoshana Silberman, whose A Family Haggadah I and II (Karben) are widely used in Reform and Conservative Jewish family celebrations of Passover. This handsome, affordably priced Haggadah, in trade paperback, is the first of its kind to use photography to illustrate the annual book of prayers and traditions used in over 6,000,000 Jewish households across America each year. Each photo will be accompanied by a facing caption telling the land of origin of its subjects, from Argentina to Bukharin to the land of Israel.

The very name of the Gra conjures images of towering Torah stature. From a small room in Vilna he shed illumination on every area of Torah. From halachah to kabbalah, Talmud to Shulchan Aruch to Tanach, the Jewish people have been infinitely enriched by the Gaon of Vilna.

In the Vilna Gaon Haggadah, his son, Rabbeinu Avraham, one of the major conduits for his teachings, amplifies his ideas and brings them within the realm our understanding. The adaptations clarifies and crystallizes the major and minor themes of the Seder night -- while exposing the reader to the very special derech, approach, of the Vilna Gaon.

The text of the Haggadah in both Hebrew and English, with stories, parables, and sayings of Hacham Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad.

Description from Publisher

Here in America, we Jews have all blended together so well that many of our own customs - especially for those not from Europe - have almost been forgotten. What an important contribution it is, therefore, that that Iraqi Jewish Haggadah is now avaiable in English and Hebrew. This is a Haggadah that every Iraqi Jewish family in America (or any English-speaking country) should have!

A discussion provoking retelling of the traditional Passover ritual, linking its meaning with age-old Buddhist concepts. A traditional haggadah in format, this has been written for a mixed family.

Haggadah for Jews & Buddhists illuminates the concepts embedded in the Biblical story of the sacred exodus from slavery to freedom. This journey applies to everyone as they face life's challenges and grow stronger through meeting them. This telling has meaning for all thoughtful adults: Buddhists, Traditional and Secular Jews and people of all beliefs and spiritualities.